f I were to own this countryside <br />As far as a man in a day could ride, <br />And the Tyes were mine for giving or letting, - <br />Wingle Tye and Margaretting <br />Tye, - and Skreens, Gooshays, and Cockerells, <br />Shellow, Rochetts, Bandish, and Pickerells, <br />Martins, Lambkins, and Lillyputs, <br />Their copses, ponds, roads, and ruts, <br />Fields where plough-horses steam and plovers <br />Fling and whimper, hedges that lovers <br />Love, and orchards, shrubberies, walls <br />Where the sun untroubled by north wind falls, <br />And single trees where the thrush sings well <br />His proverbs untranslatable, <br />I would give them all to my son <br />If he would let me any one <br />For a song, a blackbird's song, at dawn. <br />He should have no more, till on my lawn <br />Never a one was left, because I <br />Had shot them to put them into a pie, - <br />His Essex blackbirds, every one, <br />And I was left old and alone. <br /> <br />Then unless I could pay, for rent, a song <br />As sweet as a blackbird's, and as long - <br />No more - he should have the house, not I <br />Margaretting or Wingle Tye, <br />Or it might be Skreens, Gooshays, or Cockerells, <br />Shellow, Rochetts, Bandish, or Pickerells, <br />Martins, Lambkins, or Lillyputs, <br />Should be his till the cart tracks had no ruts.<br /><br />Edward Thomas<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-i-were-to-own/
